If You Have to Change Your Wedding Date, Be Prepared to Lose a Bunch of Money

My original wedding date was November 14, but my father found out in October that he'd have to have major surgery the week before the wedding, so my groom and I moved our wedding to March of 2011. How do I go about canceling everything? I don't want a hassle—and I really don't want to lose the money we put toward the November 14 wedding. Is there any way around it?

The first thing you need to do is contact all your vendors (venue, caterer, band or DJ, florist, and whoever's marrying you) stat. While you're waiting for them to get back to you, review your contracts. Chances are you put down a non-refundable deposit with most of them. Unless they're available for your new wedding date—in which case they might be willing to negotiate—you're probably not going to get those deposits back. Look over the cancellation section of the contract to find out what you're expected to pay in the event of a last-minute change of plans. The caterer might still charge you an "event fee," for example, since she probably won't be able to book another client for November 14, but she shouldn't charge you for the food, since she shouldn't have bought it a month in advance.

When you talk to your vendors, tell them what's going on with your father. Who knows? Maybe some will be kind enough to let you off the hook.

When you're done canceling the first wedding and you're ready to start re-planning—Eep!—you might want to consider getting wedding insurance this time around. I know the last thing you need is an additional expense. But should anything else happen, it could really save you money in the long run.

Ladies, can you join me in sending some virtual hugs to Nicole? Has anyone else had major wedding date drama? And have any of you bought insurance?